Forrest Griffin refused to make excuses for his defeat to Mauricio Rua at UFC 134 in Rio de Janeiro.

With his wife due to give birth to his first child, Griffin insisted he was fully focused going into the bout and admits he is struggling to put his finger on the reason for such a humiliating defeat after being knocked out in under two minutes.

"I had a decent camp going into this," Griffin said. "It's been nine weeks since the last time we were [in Brazil]. It's just setting in. I think that's a fight that I definitely could have done a lot better. It sucks when you do poorly at your job.

"I'm not really 100 per cent sure [what happened]. I had a lot of opportunities to go, and I didn't go. The gameplan was to get off after he missed. He missed a couple of times big, and I just stood there and let him off the hook. It was partly that, and I didn't really stay in a rhythm."

However, UFC president Dana White defended the former light-heavyweight champion, and revealed he had offered Griffin a lift home on his private plane after his wife went into labour on Saturday.

"Forrest is a warrior. He wears his heart on his sleeve," White said. "I have so much respect for him for coming and taking this fight in this situation. He knew he was going to be in this situation. He was just hoping, she was supposed to be nine days later.

"I want to thank him. I appreciate the fact he took this fight. His wife is literally getting ready to deliver their baby in Las Vegas right now. So we're going to try and get him home as fast as we can."